Birth: March 4, 1962
Specialty: Algebraic Geometry
Major Contributions:
Disproof of Kandara Conjecture
Sophie Germain Prize
Director of research at the Institut de Mathématiques de Jussieu
2024 Crafoord Prize Recipient
Elected to Foreign Member of the Royal Society 2021
Image: Wikimedia
Regarded as one of the world’s leading researchers in complex algebraic geometry, Dr. Claire Voisin, was awarded the 2024 Crafoord Prize “for outstanding contributions to complex and algebraic geometry, including Hodge theory, algebraic cycles, and hyperkähler geometry.” She was very surprised to learn of this newest honor stating that “being part of this group of people is extraordinary.” But this prize is just the latest in a long list of distinguished awards for her work that involves the study of topology and motives of complex algebraic varieties.
It wasn’t until she was working on her doctorate that she began seeing mathematics in a new light. While she enjoyed math as a teenager, for her mathematics was about being asked to solve problems where answers were already known so it held little interest. But upon discovering the field of algebraic geometry she saw questions still being asked and answers left open for further study and she found her current career path.
After earning her doctorate much of her work has focused on Hodge theory, which can also be used to tackle complex algebraic geometry, She has published books that have become used as reference on the theory.
Her work has garnered many awards including the Sophie Germain prize, the European Mathematical Society prize, and for her disproof of the Kodaira conjecture on deformations of compact Kähler manifolds she was awarded the Clay Research award in 2008.
The two parts of her work she has said she is most proud of were the proof of the Green conjecture for generic curves and the construction of compact Kähler manifolds not homotopically equivalent to complex projective manifolds. According to Voisin the purely algebraic role played by polarized Hodge structures in the proof was unexpected.
In 2014 she was selected to join Academia Europaea and in 2021 she was elected a Foreign Member of the Royal Society. Dr. Voisin is Senior researcher (exceptional class) at the Centre national de la recherche scientifique and works at Institut,de Mathématiques de Jussieu, Sorbonne University, in Paris.
Written by Angela Goad
Sources:
This year’s Crafoord Laureates can see inside stars and describe geometric shapes
Six Questions With: Professor Claire Voisin
Heinz Hopf Prize for Claire Voisin
See Also:
Claire Voisin, Hodge Theory, Coniveau, and Algebraic Cycles